Tertullian on the Afterlife: “Only Martyrs are in Heaven” and Other Misunderstandings
-
David E. Wilhite
Abstract
Perpetua only saw martyrs in heaven, according to Tertullian, De anima 55,4. This passage has perplexed scholars, since Tertullian seems to be referring to Saturus’s vision, not Perpetua’s (Passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis 13,8). Additionally, Tertullian’s citation is part of his larger argument against the Valentinians, in which he makes the peculiar claim that the souls of the dead are “below” (inferi) with the exception of the martyrs who are in Paradise. I contend that Tertullian’s claim has been misunderstood in the last few decades of scholarship because of a failure to contextualize his remark within his rhetorical strategy. Disentangling Tertullian’s convictions from his rhetoric is notoriously difficult, and yet by reading Tertullian as fully immersed in the tactics from the Second Sophistic Movement recent scholars have made great advances in our understanding of this North African Christian writer. Several of Tertullian’s other works provide counter-evidence to the idea that only martyrs go to heaven: specifically, Tertullian further defines “heaven,” its location, and its occupants; additionally, Tertullian clarifies who is a “martyr” in his wider oeuvre. When Tertullian’s own teachings on the afterlife are retrieved, then one can re-read De anima to see how Tertullian has cloaked these with rhetorical devices meant to refute the Valentinian notion of the soul’s ascent through multiple heavens. This idea that Tertullian believed only martyrs gain immediate access to heaven—which has often been repeated in the most recent century’s secondary literature—is itself a misunderstanding of earlier modern scholarship.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelseiten
- Editorial
- Editorial
- Edition
- Zwei neuentdeckte Predigten des Nestorios: Adversus haereticos de divina trinitate (CPG 5691) und In symbolum fidei. Edition, Übersetzung und Kommentar
- Artikel
- Tertullian on the Afterlife: “Only Martyrs are in Heaven” and Other Misunderstandings
- Ephrem the Syrian’s Use of Beatitudes
- The Missing Link: The Homoian Church in the Danubian Provinces and Its Role in the Conversion of the Goths
- Ascèse et liturgie dans l’Orient chrétien. Coutumes monastiques à l’enfermement d’un reclus
- Book under Discussion
- Maren R. Niehoff, Philon von Alexandria. Eine intellektuelle Biographie (übersetzt von Claus-Jürgen Thornton und Eva Tyrell; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019). Englisches Original: Philo of Alexandria. An Intellectual Biography (Yale: Yale University Press, 2018).
- Rezensionen
- Andrew Gregory, Hg.: The Gospel According to the Hebrews and the Gospel of the Ebionites, Oxford Early Christian Gospel Texts, Oxford (Oxford University Press) 2017, 361 S., ISBN 978-0-19-928786-4, £ 120,–.
- Jane D. McLarty: Thecla’s Devotion: Narrative, Emotion and Identity in the „Acts of Paul and Thecla“, Cambridge (James Clarke & Co.) 2018, 257 S., ISBN 978-0-227-17609-2, £ 65,–
- Kevin Douglas Hill: Athanasius and the Holy Spirit: The Development of His Early Pneumatology, Minneapolis (Fortress Press) 2016, XXII + 289 pp., ISBN 978-1-5064-1668-7, $ 49,–.
- Bradley K. Storin: Self-Portrait in Three Colors: Gregory of Nazianzus’s Epistolary Autobiography, Christianity in Late Antiquity 6, Oakland (University of California Press) 2019, IX + 261 S., ISBN 978-0-520-97294-0, $ 95,–; £ 78,–.
- Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom: The Monastic Landscape of Late Antique Egypt: An Archaeological Reconstruction, Cambridge (Cambridge University Press) 2017, XXVII + 426 pp., ISBN 978-1-107-16181-8, $ 135,–.
- Peter Heather: Die letzte Blüte Roms. Das Zeitalter Justinians, Übers. Cornelius Hartz, Darmstadt (WBG Theiss) 2018 (Übers. von Rome Resurgent: War and Empire in the Age of Justinian, New York [Oxford University Press] 2018]), 446 S., ISBN 978-3-8062-3892-1, € 35,–.
- Eleni Pachoumi und Mark Edwards, Hgg.: Praying and Contemplating in Late Antiquity: Religious and Philosophical Interactions, Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 113, Tübingen (Mohr Siebeck) 2018, 229 S., ISBN 978-3-16-156119-1, € 79,–.
- Jared Ortiz, ed.: Deification in the Latin Patristic Tradition, CUA Studies in Early Christianity, Washington, D.C. (Catholic University of America Press) 2019, 313 pp., ISBN 978-0-8132-3142-6, $ 75,–.
- Jonathan D. Teubner: Prayer after Augustine: A Study in the Development of the Latin Tradition, Oxford (Oxford University Press) 2018, VIII + 257 S., ISBN 978-0-19-876717-6, £ 69,–.
- Jérémy Delmulle: Prosper d’Aquitaine contre Jean Cassien: Le Contra collatorem, l’appel à Rome du parti augustinien dans la querelle postpélagienne, Textes et Etudes du Moyen Âge 91, Turnhout (Brepols) 2018, XLIV + 381 pp., ISBN 9782503584294, € 55,–.
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelseiten
- Editorial
- Editorial
- Edition
- Zwei neuentdeckte Predigten des Nestorios: Adversus haereticos de divina trinitate (CPG 5691) und In symbolum fidei. Edition, Übersetzung und Kommentar
- Artikel
- Tertullian on the Afterlife: “Only Martyrs are in Heaven” and Other Misunderstandings
- Ephrem the Syrian’s Use of Beatitudes
- The Missing Link: The Homoian Church in the Danubian Provinces and Its Role in the Conversion of the Goths
- Ascèse et liturgie dans l’Orient chrétien. Coutumes monastiques à l’enfermement d’un reclus
- Book under Discussion
- Maren R. Niehoff, Philon von Alexandria. Eine intellektuelle Biographie (übersetzt von Claus-Jürgen Thornton und Eva Tyrell; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019). Englisches Original: Philo of Alexandria. An Intellectual Biography (Yale: Yale University Press, 2018).
- Rezensionen
- Andrew Gregory, Hg.: The Gospel According to the Hebrews and the Gospel of the Ebionites, Oxford Early Christian Gospel Texts, Oxford (Oxford University Press) 2017, 361 S., ISBN 978-0-19-928786-4, £ 120,–.
- Jane D. McLarty: Thecla’s Devotion: Narrative, Emotion and Identity in the „Acts of Paul and Thecla“, Cambridge (James Clarke & Co.) 2018, 257 S., ISBN 978-0-227-17609-2, £ 65,–
- Kevin Douglas Hill: Athanasius and the Holy Spirit: The Development of His Early Pneumatology, Minneapolis (Fortress Press) 2016, XXII + 289 pp., ISBN 978-1-5064-1668-7, $ 49,–.
- Bradley K. Storin: Self-Portrait in Three Colors: Gregory of Nazianzus’s Epistolary Autobiography, Christianity in Late Antiquity 6, Oakland (University of California Press) 2019, IX + 261 S., ISBN 978-0-520-97294-0, $ 95,–; £ 78,–.
- Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom: The Monastic Landscape of Late Antique Egypt: An Archaeological Reconstruction, Cambridge (Cambridge University Press) 2017, XXVII + 426 pp., ISBN 978-1-107-16181-8, $ 135,–.
- Peter Heather: Die letzte Blüte Roms. Das Zeitalter Justinians, Übers. Cornelius Hartz, Darmstadt (WBG Theiss) 2018 (Übers. von Rome Resurgent: War and Empire in the Age of Justinian, New York [Oxford University Press] 2018]), 446 S., ISBN 978-3-8062-3892-1, € 35,–.
- Eleni Pachoumi und Mark Edwards, Hgg.: Praying and Contemplating in Late Antiquity: Religious and Philosophical Interactions, Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 113, Tübingen (Mohr Siebeck) 2018, 229 S., ISBN 978-3-16-156119-1, € 79,–.
- Jared Ortiz, ed.: Deification in the Latin Patristic Tradition, CUA Studies in Early Christianity, Washington, D.C. (Catholic University of America Press) 2019, 313 pp., ISBN 978-0-8132-3142-6, $ 75,–.
- Jonathan D. Teubner: Prayer after Augustine: A Study in the Development of the Latin Tradition, Oxford (Oxford University Press) 2018, VIII + 257 S., ISBN 978-0-19-876717-6, £ 69,–.
- Jérémy Delmulle: Prosper d’Aquitaine contre Jean Cassien: Le Contra collatorem, l’appel à Rome du parti augustinien dans la querelle postpélagienne, Textes et Etudes du Moyen Âge 91, Turnhout (Brepols) 2018, XLIV + 381 pp., ISBN 9782503584294, € 55,–.
